Get Government Out of Health Care

The Supreme Court's ruling on Obamacare could come Thursday, or Monday. In my syndicated column this week I say this about the constitutionality of the mandate that requires us to buy insurance:

Seems like a no-brainer to me. How can forcing me to engage in commerce be constitutional?

But there's a deeper question: Why should government be involved in medicine at all?

Obama claimed that increased government involvement would save money and give people more choices. How has that worked out so far?

Costs have risen. More choices? No... we have fewer choices. Many people lost coverage when companies left the market.

Because ObamaCare requires insurance companies to cover every child regardless of pre-existing conditions, WellPoint, Humana and Cigna got out of the child-only business. Principal Financial stopped offering health insurance altogether -- 1 million customers no longer have the choice to keep their insurance.

Of course, while government healthcare will make health care worse, it's not like America had a free market in medicine before Obamacare.

We had a system that limited competition through occupational licensing, FDA rules and other government intrusions, while stimulating demand through tax-favored employer-based "insurance," Medicare and Medicaid.

The best way to improve our flawed medical system is to get government out of it. For more on that, the rest of the piece is here.